Blue Preview: Storyline, odds and the key players to watch for UK football vs. Akron
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Preview: Akron at Kentucky
Click below to read more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s preview coverage ahead of Saturday’s Kentucky-Akron football game at 7:30 p.m. at Kroger Field.
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Kentucky vs. Akron
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
TV: ESPNU.
Announcers: Play-by-play, Courtney Lyle; analysis, Hutson Mason.
Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1.
Satellite Radio: XM Channel 203, Sirius Channel 98, Internet Channel 966.
Records: Kentucky 2-0; Akron 1-1.
Series history: Kentucky leads 1-0.
Most-recent meeting: Derrick Locke ran for 166 yards and two touchdowns to lead Kentucky to a 47-10 pasting of Akron on Sept. 18, 2010, in Lexington.
Line: Kentucky is favored by 25 points.
The storyline
Kentucky might have started the season 2-0, but the Wildcats’ performance in wins over Ball State and Eastern Kentucky has been less than stellar. With only Akron remaining between UK and the nine-game stretch vs. all-Power Five conference opponents that will end the Wildcats season, the Cats have an acute need to build some positive momentum.
The number to watch
The third-down efficiency of the UK defense. A season ago, Kentucky allowed opponents to convert first downs on only 33.3% of their third-down attempts. This year, UK has so far allowed foes to convert on a robust 51.7% of third-down tries — which ranks No. 122 out of 132 FBS teams.
The big threat
Alex Adams. Akron’s 6-foot-1, 190-pound junior wide receiver out of Osyka, Mississippi, caught 63 passes for 850 yards and a team-high nine touchdowns in 2022. A former LSU Tiger, Adams leads the Zips in receptions so far this season with nine, which have gone for 86 yards and a TD.
On the spot
Brad White. For all the focus on the lackluster first halves turned in by the Kentucky offense in the opening two games, one reason UK has so far run the fewest plays from scrimmage (112) of any Southeastern Conference team has been the struggles of the Wildcats’ defense in getting off the field (see above). Since White became Kentucky’s defensive coordinator in 2019, the UK defenses have been consistently stout, so it is unusual to see the Wildcats “D” in the position of needing to step it up. But that is where things presently stand.
The mood
Is frustrated. Kentucky’s spotty play in its first two games — both against teams from “down the college football conference food chain” — have left a UK fan base that expected better bewildered and disheartened. If UK could put together four consistent quarters of quality play and create meaningful separation between it and Akron on the scoreboard it would brighten the mood going into SEC play on Sept. 23 at Vanderbilt.
This story was originally published September 11, 2023 at 6:45 AM.
